Living Faith

Living Faith is a new vision for the Diocese of Oxford over the next five years.

It is a new programme based on five simple priorities that unite the diocese in the Church, and help us to grow as a family in faith. The five priorities for Living Faith are:

Sustaining the sacred centre
This is about encouraging and enabling clergy and lay people to deepen their enjoyment of God, and to recognize God’s presence in everyday life.

Making Disciples
This is about the core task left to us by Jesus. It usually takes the form of accompanying people on a journey to faith by the intentional use of nurture courses, mentoring, the catechumenate (education in the faith), or simple friendship.

Making a difference in the world
This is about recognising that in a holistic understanding of God’s action in the world, there is no mission without social justice; that social justice and prophetic witness cannot be put in a box as a specialism or an extra, but is at the heart of the calling of every Christian community in its own content.

Creating vibrant Christian communities
This is about shaping ‘communities of grace’ which exhibit the character of Jesus. Such attractive communities are genuinely hospitable, deeply engaged with their communities, and passionate about God.

Shaping confident, collaborative leadership
This is about developing leadership using all the resources available to the local church. It would involve consolidation in some parishes and new work in others to build up shared ministry in teams, with appropriate training and support.

It’s rather like a palette of colours which each parish, deanery and Board can use in their won way to create that work of distinctive beauty which is their particular response to God’s mission. What we end up with the is a gallery full not of look-alike paintings, but of vibrant, colourful and unique works of art.

— Rt Revd John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford

You can find out more about Living Faith at the diocese’s website here.